‘vRealize Lifecycle Manager v1.2’ (vRSLCM) was introduced with VVD 4.3, as per VVD 5.0 vRSLCM 2.0.0 Patch2 is the latest certified version. vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager (vRSLCM) v2.0 is a centralized way to manage the vRealize suite of products from a single pane of glass, allowing users to perform tasks such as installation, configuration, content management, integrated market place, upgrades, patching, certificate management, support matrix lookup among other admin tasks.. more details can be found here on the What’s New video for vRSLCM 2.0.

In terms of ‘Whats New’ the biggest addition in this release is the introduction of VMware Cloud Builder (an automation tool leveraged to deploy the SDDC stack, such as the vRealize suite, vSphere, NSX and vSAN) and talking from experience this will save you ALOT of manual effort in terms of deploying the SDDC stack. Cloud Builder essentially cuts for example the Standard Deployment for Region A implementation doc to ~80 pages from ~400! @LifeOfBrianOC has written an excellent series of blog posts detailing VVD Cloudbuilder deployment process: VMware Validated Designs – Automated Deployment with Cloudbuilder

Product Group and Edition

Product Name

Product Version

VMware Validated Design

VMware Cloud Builder

1.0

VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus

ESXi

6.7 Update 1

vCenter Server Appliance

6.7 Update 1

vSphere Update Manager

6.7 Update 1

vSphere Replication

8.1.1

VMware vSAN Standard or higher

vSAN

6.7 Update 1

VMware NSX Data Center Advanced or higher

NSX Data Center for vSphere

6.4.4

VMware vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager

vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager

2.0.0 Patch 2

VMware vRealize Operations Manager Advanced or higher

vRealize Operations Manager

7.0

vRealize Operations Management Pack for NSX for vSphere

3.5.2

vRealize Operations Management Pack for Storage Devices

7.0.0

vRealize Operations Management Pack for Site Recovery Manager

8.1.1

VMware vRealize Log Insight

vRealize Log Insight

4.7

vRealize Log Insight Content Pack for NSX for vSphere

3.8

vRealize Log Insight Content Pack for vRealize Automation 7.3+

2.1

vRealize Log Insight Content Pack for vRealize Orchestrator 7.0.1+

2.0

vRealize Log Insight Content Pack for vRealize Business

1.3

vRealize Log Insight Content Pack for Linux

1.0

vRealize Log Insight Content Pack for Site Recovery Manager

1.7

VMware vRealize Automation Advanced or higher

vRealize Automation

7.5

VMware vRealize Business for Cloud Advanced

vRealize Business for Cloud

7.5

VMware Site Recovery Manager Enterprise

Site Recovery Manager

8.1.1

In terms of security this is a key point to note as per the VVD release notes:

“VMware makes available patches and releases to address critical security issues for several products. Verify that you are using the latest security patches for a given component when deploying VMware Validated Design.”